Invisible School Buses

In Jefferson County, hundreds of school buses cross railroad tracks more than 3,000 times each and every school day, but according to the Kentucky agency required to report that, not one of those school buses makes any of those crossings.

In Jefferson County, hundreds of school buses cross railroad tracks more than 3,000 times each and every school day, but according to the Kentucky agency required to report that, not one of those school buses makes any of those crossings.

In Jefferson County, hundreds of school buses cross railroad tracks more than 3,000 times each and every school day, but according to the Kentucky agency required to report that, not one of those school buses makes any of those crossings.

A WLKY Investigation uncovered Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Rail Safety Coordinators have been reporting to the federal government zero school buses at nearly 200 Jefferson County crossings for years.

Because of the lack of reporting, the district’s school buses have been invisible to the state and federal governments for years. That’s important because a school bus is one of the top criteria for considering whether a crossing should get gates, which, according to the railroad industry, makes a crossing 90 percent safer than having no warning at all.

“It (school bus) does get extra weighting,” explained Rick Haydon, one of two Kentucky Rail Safety Coordinators, whose job includes not just counting the school buses, but recommending where to install crossing gates. “The fact that a crossing doesn't have school buses might keep it from getting gates at that particular crossing.”

Yet Haydon and his colleague, Ryan Smith, have repeatedly listed zero school buses at 162 crossings to the Federal Railroad Administration, which notes the count in its official inventory.

Many of the crossings listed as zero have nearly nonstop school bus traveling over the tracks every morning and afternoon, as buses filled with kids make their way to and from Jefferson County Public Schools.

WLKY made an open records request of Jefferson County Public Schools, asking for all bus traffic at railroad crossings, uncovering the true count and discrepancies.

Among the crossings we proved have multiple crossings each and every school day: East Orell Road, where 48 school buses cross; Gagel Avenue, where 42 buses cross, and; Beech Street, where 85 buses cross.

All three of these rail crossings have no gates, yet Kentucky’s official count to the federal government has been zero at these and 159 other locations where school buses cross the tracks.

Haydon and Smith said they report zero because JCPS never responded to their written request two-and-a-half years ago for accurate counts of school bus crossings.

Because JCPS never responded, Haydon said the state had no choice but to report zero school buses.

“That's all we can do,” Haydon said. “We can't falsify information by saying every crossing has 12. That's the same as saying every crossing is at zero.”

So on paper, JCPS school buses haven’t really existed, leaving local students without a chance of getting the highest level of warning at the tracks.

Lost in the Mail?

Whether the letter to JCPS from the state was lost or ignored may never be clear.

When we asked JCPS Chief Operations Officer Michael Raisor about what happened, he could only answer, “I have no idea.”

However, it is clear JCPS did not respond to that letter and provide the state with accurate reporting of all buses at the crossings.

“I find it disappointing,” Haydon said. “I would like to think that every school district, both public and independent, would feel as strongly as I do about the safety at the railroad crossings as it relates to their buses and ultimately, their children.”

As the state blamed JCPS, it is equally clear Kentucky’s Rail Safety Coordinators never followed up their letter for more than two years to even confirm it had been received.

When asked why his office did not write again, or call JCPS, Haydon became a bit agitated and pointed out his limited funding to do that.

“If we did not have just the two of us handling this entire state, perhaps we could have had time to send out follow up letters and made phone calls,” he said.

In stark contrast to a lack of sharing information, WLKY’s open records request on Dec. 17 to JCPS regarding the same data the state had asked for was answered with data attached on Dec. 19, just two days later.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that a proposed agreement between world powers and Iran was "a bad deal" that would not stop Tehran from getting nuclear weapons -- but would rather pave its way to getting lots of them and lea...